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Friday, January 28, 2011

Getting what you want

I'm generally a cheapskate. I don't like to spend money on something when I can get something that is serviceable for less. The problem is that often I regret the less expensive item and am not happy with it because it isn't really what I wanted.

We've been in our house for almost three years now. Our kitchen still has the original cabinets which are in desperate need of a new coat of paint. They also have the most hideous hardware. The hardware is not original, that's for sure and definitely not my style. So recently I've been bitten by the kitchen remodeling bug. I've been thinking about what I want for the kitchen since we moved into the house.

I want to stick with the 1950's theme. Last year I stripped the wallpaper (you can see it in this post) and Mike painted the walls. I intend to paint the trim and the cabinets a nice bright white and have been searching and searching for the hardware to go on the cabinets. I considered glass knobs to match the built-in china cabinet (I'm still amazed that in the smallest kitchen ever, there is room for a built in china cabinet). So, to see if that's what I wanted I bought a similar looking (but plastic) knob from Home Depot. It didn't do it for me or anyone else in the family. So, I continued my search. After searching through 1950's kitchen photos, I found the picture I shared in my last post. I thought perhaps a simple vintage silver pull would work and began searching for those.

It was in that search that I came upon the hardware in the above photo. Now, I need 21 of these babies. That makes the search that much more difficult. As you can see in the photo, there are 21 of similar quality. Mike approved the look and the price. They were more expensive than I generally spend on hardware. We figured that it is ok to spend a little extra on something you love and will have in the house for what could be the rest of our lives. Especially when we won't be spending much money on the whole redo. Most people spend $10K or more on their kitchen so $200 on hardware you love isn't bad, right?

This is my third house. Our last house required a LOT of rehabbing. We did it slowly as we had time. To be honest when we sold the house, we had to fix quite a bit to sell. After fixing it, I said to myself, why did I live with it that way for so many years? Some of it had to do with money. I also find that eventually, I don't see things any more. They just become part of the background.

So, I'm trying to be productive. I'm trying to keep my eyes open and fix what I can now so we can enjoy it. No, I won't redo what I can't afford but our little kitchen redo is VERY affordable. It helps that the kitchen is so tiny. Not much counter top to replace.

The cabinet pulls came the other day. They are gorgeous. Now, if it would just stop snowing here so I can get out and buy some paint.